When personal computing systems power-on they use a power-on setup test (POST) routine. Each computing device in the computing system is powered-on, setup for operation based on previous configuration information, and tested. If all devices come up and test properly the computing programs in the firmware of the computing system hand off control of the system to the operating system.
During the POST operations a new peripheral device not previously initialized and configured will be detected, and the POST routine will be interrupted while configuration routines for the peripheral device take place. Because the configuration of new peripheral devices interrupts the POST routine, the POST routine may be significantly delayed if there are a number of peripheral devices newly attached to the computing system.
To deal with this interruption and delay of the POST routine, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Firmware Specification standard was agreed to by industry representatives. In version 3.0 of this standard the PCI device will carry with it an OP ROM containing a configuration utility.
There is still a need for the POST routine to manage the initialization and configuration PCI devices adhering to this PCI firmware specification 3.0.